462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



charcoal and auk-bones, the charred condition of the latter testi- 

 fying to the truth of the accounts that the fat bodies of the slain 

 birds were used as fuel to heat water for scalding their compan- 

 ions — a near approach to seething the kid in its mother's milk. 

 Other cooking places, where the birds were scalded and plucked, 

 lie scattered along the crest of the southern slope, although it is 

 only by much digging that their existence is brought to light. 

 An excavation made near the best-preserved pens revealed the 

 fact that here was probably one of the last places where the great 

 auk was taken. Scarcely two inches of turf covered the shallow 

 soil in which lay imbedded a few fresh-looking bones of the great 

 auk, mixed with others belonging to its relative, the murre. Evi- 

 dently, the great auk was even then on the wane ; its numbers 

 were no longer sufficient to supply the demands of the feather- 

 hunters, who, like their successors, promptly supplied the defi- 

 ciency with the next bird at hand. 



The great auk, by the way, is not the only bird exterminated 

 on Funk Island, for the gannet lives only in the name, Gannet 

 Head, although it was abundant in the time of Cartier, and, ac- 

 cording to report, still lingered thirty years ago. 



Thanks to the efforts of the eggers, the numbers of all birds 

 breeding here have greatly lessened during the last twenty years, 

 and only the puffin, whose security lies in his burrow, seems able 

 to hold his own. 



The soil of Funk Island is in two distinct layers, the lower of 

 which, mostly formed during the occupancy of the great auk, is 

 from three inches to a foot in thickness. Next the bed-rock lie a 

 few angular pebbles, of various sizes, mixed with and covered by 

 a deposit containing innumerable fragments of egg-shells, the 

 whole having a yellowish-gray appearance. Even were there but 

 few bones present, the character of this stratum is in itself suffi- 

 cient to indicate the immense number of auks formerly breeding 

 here, as well as the length of time during which they made Funk 

 Island their resort. Also, were there no testimony to the con- 

 trary, the shallowness of the soil would show the inaccuracy of 

 those writers who state that the great auk nested in a burrow. 

 The upper stratum of soil has been formed since the extermina- 

 tion of the auks, principally by the growth and decay of the vege- 

 tation, nourished by their decomposing bodies. This fine, dark- 

 colored, superficial layer, covered with thick, loose turf, formed 

 by the matted roots of plants, also varies in thickness from three 

 or four inches to a foot. In it are found the great majority of 

 bones, the patches of charcoal indicating the location of the cook- 

 ing-places, and, very rarely, linings of eggs in a more or less di- 

 lapidated condition. 



By far the best-preserved remains occur in the older soil, where 



